Anastasia Rosen-Jones (formally Marcia E. Rosen), New Horizons Small “Zones Of Peace” Project Executive Director and Founder.
A personal and professional blog exploring the vision behind the New
Horizons ZOP and how it reflects my journey from blindness to recovery.

Finding Light in the Darkness

Anastasia Rosen-Jones

Anastasia Rosen-Jones (formerly Marcia E. Rosen) is a retired psychotherapist with more than thirty-five years in the mental health field. Now a community development and violence prevention coach, consultant and trainer, she is the author of five books in progress, including "The Middle East Crisis In My Backyard" and numerous articles.

Anastasia makes her home in the mountains above Harpers Ferry where she is happily nested with the birds, the trees and the squirrels. She is at her most fulfilled watching the sunset from the deck of her home -- and/or -- sitting around a campfire in the woods telling and listening to stories.

Others, also, were taking steps that aligned with “My Tranquility Diet” pledge, made yesterday at New Horizons volunteer work day.Oh my, how wonderful! The actions of these folks were in line with the words of Anne Frank when she said —

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

These leaders were doing it, today!Thus for me, today, as it was, yesterday, out here in Harpers Ferry, the natural beauty that surrounds one here was as much in me as around me! Yesterday, I started the day feeling tranquil and moved into joy! Reading these articles is now helping me recreate that, again, today. Perhaps where we look for inspiration makes a huge difference.Yesterday we planted fall harvest vegetables. Dug into corporate records to get them organized, had our usual steering committee activities, assessing New Horizons plans for the Fall and doing our general reaching-for-awe practices. It was a lovely day.We even made good use of the thunderstorms that rose up during our time together, doing indoor kinds of things, involved mostly with our corporate records straightening-out project.For me, personally, the highlight of the day, besides the planting of more beans and swiss chard, was Sue’s working with me in such a way, attributable to her beautiful gifts as a teacher and healer, resulting in my making a pledge to both New Horizons and myself to make living and being in a state of tranquility for one whole month as my top priority. Today is to be Day One, heading toward my destination of "mission complete" on September 18.Because we are in such a state of flux, now, at New Horizons which affects me most, as Executive Director and as the person who is now intent on "coming out" of how I have been, into something bigger, this seems to be a wonderful path for us all. In the midst of our challenges, I will now be giving attention to staying calm – and – happy under stress and role modeling it for the others, concurrently.We are having a taxing time, these days. With the chaos Trump is creating, keeping our country in an upheaval. That -- and -- the fact that many people are preferring polarization, presently, to being “united states,” has created a situation wherein we are almost out of work. Thus we must now re-define ourselves. This seems, at present, to possibly mean that we may need to be more selective in choosing who we deem to be appropriate to work with in designing our programs. The part about my “coming out” is testing me to the max, too, as I am now having to walk myself back through all the many reasons and accompanying thought and behavior patterns that have shaped me since leaving the D.C. fast track. What a learning process this is, definitely making my coming out a process rather than an event!With only a few elements, solidly in place, such as: 1. Anastasia is now “coming out” of her leaving-D.C. –created-cocoon; 2. New Horizons stands for unity and that mission must be preserved at all costs; 3. New Horizons is now undergoing re-construction to make way for our new face in the era of Trump. When so many seem to prefer polarization to peace, Coffee House Conversations are not, now, in high demand. I definitely have my work cut out for me, especially given that “tranquility” needs to be my over-arching practice in the face of it all.I’ll let you know how it goes.Joining The Tranquility Diet plan.In the meantime, consider joining me in pledging to make “tranquility,” or some variation of it, as your priority for the coming month. This is truly a Winners Paradigm adventure. One of its main tenets comes from the following thoughts of Viktor Frankl, a prominent psychiatrist who survived the Nazi concentration camps. as originally offered in his profound book, Man’s Search For Meaning, on how people lived and survived that ordeal –

On Choice & Dignity

But what about human liberty? Is there no spiritual freedom in regard to behavior and reaction to any given surroundings?

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

Let’s discover together where choice and tranquility can take us, in the coming month, to living with this kind of “dignity”!If you would join me, it would be like we are being diet or exercise buddies. Even better, we would be fellow travelers seeking “awe” in a time of extreme stress! What might that turn out to be like?I’ll be posting my side of the adventure. And you, too, could share yours, by posting comments to what I write. You might even like to join me on my Anastasia The Storyteller Radio Show for a discussion on how you are doing staying on the “Tranquility Diet.” (One show we have already broadcast, on this theme, "When The Force Is Disturbed What Do We Do"? is now on podcast.)Or, email me at: SuperSleuthDSW@aol.com with your news.